Building Communities

1. Building Communities Chapter 2 Lesson 3

2. Objectives • Explain the conditions that helped make towns successful • Describe the social and economic changes that resulted from the growth of cities

3. Vocabulary • Division of labor – work according to your abilities • Merchant – people who sell goods they bought from traders • Social class – a group that has a specific level of importance in a society • Government – an organized system of leaders and laws • Urban – relating to city or cities • Taxation – a system in which people pay taxes to support a government

4. Early Towns • Success at farming or trading allowed many early villages, such as Jericho, to grow into towns • These villages could support up to a few thousand people • Quick facts about Jericho: surrounded by a wall, people respected the dead, valued religion and lived in beehive-shaped huts

5. CatalHuyuk • CatalHuyuk and Jericho were alike in many ways – both located near water supply and important trade routes • CatalHuyuk was also different in many ways • Example: architecture consisted of small, multi roomed houses that people entered from the roof! See page 68 in textbook

6. Labor, Leaders and Laws • A new division of labor began in towns, which led to the development of social classes and beginning of government • Rulers, priests, and other important leaders and their families usually made up the highest social class

7. Cities and Civilization • Early civilizations arose from cities in Mesopotamia and Egypt in about 3100 BC • They covered larger areas than cities and had larger buildings and temples • They usually had a central government and developed some form of writing

8. Summary • Improvements in agriculture allowed some farming villages to grow into towns, then cities, and eventually civilizations • These changes happened over thousands of years • Social and economic changes took place at each step • As civilizations developed, technology and communication advanced rapidly